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Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1974)

I have no idea what the plot of this movie is—seriously no idea—but I know that I love it. Even if with subtitles it became a maudlin, sexist melodrama (which I doubt) I would still love it. Why? Well for one thing it is extremely shiny. Premnath has a lair made completely out of mirrors, and not in a pretty Mughal-e-Azam kind of way but in a spectacularly gaudy disco kind of way. The songs by OP Nayyar are delightful and the cinematography (VN Reddy) is gorgeous. The cast is a veritable Who’s Who of character actors. And a still-dashing Sunil Dutt makes a dacoit I can really root for, although he does seem a little old for plump young Rekha. The story is liberally sprinkled with dacoit-drama masala ingredients: greedy moneylenders, long-lost daughters, flashbacks, dozens of people named Singh, pretty pretty Marwari horses, and real ruffians lurking beneath a veneer of respectability and draped with scantily-clad gori extras. I felt totally sated by the end.

Did I mention the mirrors? Lots and lots of mirrors.

My plot synopsis is no doubt be riddled with errors but since I was entertained by what I thought was going on hopefully you will be too. Feared and respected Raja Thakur (Sunil Dutt) is called in by a girl’s parents when local rich man Bhanwar Singh (Rajan Haksar) refuses to marry their daughter. There is some issue with her purity, I gather, although it seems to me that Bhanwar Singh doesn’t have much room to point fingers when a) he seems in all likelihood responsible for the issue to begin with; and b) his hobby is whipping nautch girls. Plus of course I can’t approve of her “loving” parents marrying this poor girl to such a nasty man, but izzat is izzat after all. Khair. Raja and his men find Bhanwar in the local brothel, owned by Chandabai (Indira Bansal), pursuing his hobby.

As Raja’s men force Bhanwar to dress in his wedding clothes, Raja is entertained by a dancer named Janiya (Rekha), and smitten on sight.

See what I mean about the photography? The film is full of these interesting angles and the colors are to die for (although a little source TLC would be in order, along with subtitles).

Dance ended and Bhanwar and his bride tied together in what will no doubt be a horrific nightmare for her, Raja either proposes marriage or wants to confer the status of mistress on Janiya. She refuses indignantly: Raja is a criminal, a dacoit! He is amused and returns to his Ma (Veena) and her rather more welcoming arms; we are treated to a flashback which reveals that Raja’s father was making sure his son got a good education before a greedy moneylender (Tiwari) and his assistant (Randhir) ruined him, and he died from a heart attack.

I am always happy to see Veena and ecstatic to see Tiwari; that kurta almost rivals the pink nightie, although he looks very thin. I worry that he was sick and he sadly never appears again in this movie.

Back in the present, the police (led by Kedar Sehgal, a long-standing “that guy” recently identified by readers Quezar and Mool Narain Singh) decide to trap Raja Thakur and his men at the local temple when he goes there to worship. Luckily for Raja the police in this film aren’t any smarter than the ones in other seventies movies and are easily outwitted. It’s also an excellent excuse for another song and dance, this time courtesy of Jayshree T. I’m also thrilled to see a young and very fine RANJEET! and Raja’s beautiful well-trained white horse.

Raja now finds out from local scumbag moneylender Dharamdas (Jeevan) and one of his dacoits (Maruti) that nobody is attending Janiya’s dances since finding out about Raja’s interest in her. Raja’s best friend and right-hand man Pandit (?) doesn’t want to get involved, but Dharamdas and Raja come up with some sort of plan that pleases them.

Meanwhile, Janiya is at the local police station bewailing her fate and confiding in Inspector Darogaji (?) that she was kidnapped at the age of six. Taken from her wealthy father Seth Dhanraj (Iftekhar), she was sold off to Chandabai and brothel life. Unbeknownst to Dhanraj, none other than his own brother-in-law Jagmohan (Madan Puri) was involved, along with Dharamdas and a wealthy man named Mangal Singh (Premnath).

Darogaji doesn’t appear to believe her, and has her arrested (why, I have no idea) but he does send another inspector to meet Dhanraj and tell him the story. Dhanraj wants to meet her and arranges to come to the police station later. Naturally Jagmohan does not want a reunion to happen, fearing that his involvement in the kidnapping will come to light. He goes to see Dharamdas, who is whiling his time away with a tall skinny European. Dharamdas scoffs at the notion that Janiya is really the long-lost Sheetal—he just wants to get back to his girl (“June, come sooon!”).

But before Dhanraj can get to the police station Raja discovers that she’s been arrested. Although Pandit is once again reluctant, Raja immediately organizes a rescue. It is accomplished with a maximum of noise, smoke, and gunfire, and Janiya is grateful—and impressed by Raja’s manliness (so am I). Pandit is shot, but escapes and makes his way back to the dacoit cave: he is pretty angry and I assume it’s because he’s been shot over something he didn’t want to do in the first place. I could be way off on that. Raja knocks him out with a swift punch to the face, takes out the bullet and douses the wound in liquor.

The next day Seth Dhanraj arrives at the police station and is shown the clothes and a gold necklace that Janiya had said she was wearing when kidnapped. They are indeed long-lost Sheetal’s, and Dhanraj is thrilled (Jagmohan not so much), at least until he finds out she’s been taken by bandits.

Now Dharamdas panics along with Jagmohan and goes to see Mangal Singh. Mangal points out that the only link to them and Sheetal’s kidnapping (besides Sheetal’s memory, which apparently they dismiss) is Chandabai, and he sends his henchman to kill her with a poisonous fountain pen which I guess he does because she’s never seen again after he pokes her with it.

In Raja’s cave, Janiya has now decided that she loves Raja whom she had previously scorned. And unfortunately, Pandit decides that he loves (or wants, more precisely) Janiya whom HE had previously scorned. After he tries to rape her one day, the long-standing friendship between him and Raja is broken and he is banished from the gang. The attempted rape scene is interesting for two reasons: one, the film itself has an “Adults Only” (A) certificate and the only reason for it that I can think of are the prolonged (what I suppose the censors might consider tantalizing) hints that Janiya is not wearing anything (although she clearly IS); the other is that Ranjeet is the one who saves her! How delicious is that?!

Raja takes Janiya to his Ma for safekeeping (the police are now looking for Janiya and Raja as well). This proves to be a bad idea, because Mangal has by now decided that kidnapping Sheetal for ransom is a good next step for him. He double-crosses Jagmohan (who thinks they are just getting rid of her so that his treason will remain undetected by Dhanraj) into arranging the kidnapping (courtesy of Shetty and Khursheed, a scary duo if ever there was one—poor Rekha! She does a lot of shrieking in these twenty minutes or so!). Poor Ma is killed when she tries to stop them, although she doesn’t die until she’s given a long speech to Raja while clutching a gigantic piece of silver jewelry in her bloodied hand which he eventually puts to good use.

So now poor Janiya/Sheetal is in Mangal’s clutches (and his disco lair) and Dharamdas is still determined to kill Janiya to protect his interests. Will Dhanraj be able to pay the ransom and save his daughter’s life? Will Raja get there first? Can Dhanraj accept a dacoit as a son-in-law?

And is there anything more fun than a gleefully debauched Premnath reflected in a thousand brightly colored mirrors?

No, dear friends, I think not. Especially when that lair contains a MASALA DEATH TRAP labyrinth of needle-like spikes.

I know there were plenty of nuances that I missed (or misread), and there is a dizzying array of characters tossed in at the end whose genesis I never did understand. Still and all, I thoroughly enjoyed this loony fun-filled glitter-fest and can’t recommend it highly enough. At the bare minimum look up the songs; and please, universe, make subtitles happen!

And last but not least, these are some of the several million actors appearing in this for whom I need names. Can anyone help?

Wow! Lovely review of a movie that I have sadly not seen yet – for the same reason as Ava. It had an A certificate, so when it came to town, I did not see it then (much like happened with Bobby and Julie). Somehow I never got around to seeing this movie later.

Yes, this is supposed to be the last movie where Asha Bhosle sang for OP Nayyar. By then they had split – I believe it was a bitter split. She did win lots of awards for the best-known song of this film “chain se humko kabhi” (which I think is not in the movie at all).

Jeevan, Madan Puri, Premnath – that’s a lot of evil there! I love it when there are so many baddies – always fun to figure out who has biggest-baddie bragging rights. ;-)

The colors and camerawork really seem to stand out.

This movie really looks like it’s worth a watch. I like all the characters you’ve mentioned and I like dacoit movies, so I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy it.

I didn’t see Julie because I had some exams coming up, plus it had an A cert. I saw it on TV years later, and it was simply lovely. But Bobby didn’t have an A cert. and I saw it first day first show in Bangalore, in one of those KG Circle cinema houses. I fell totally in love with the movie, tho’ I was a pre-teen, and saw it many many times. Well, girls are a little precocious.

She sang all the songs in the film too—maybe OP was trying to keep her busy! :D I think you would love this, unless understanding the dialogue somehow makes it bad. But I don’t think it will. Feel free to edify me on my errors!

I have a vague suspicion that I have seen this movie because some of it sounds familiar to me. This was during the period that I watched a movie (and sometimes, two) every weekend because there was nothing better to do in the back of beyond place where I was living and working, so my memory of these movies is blurry, at best! I do remember Sunil Dutt and a plump Rekha, only because I didn’t watch any Rekha movies for a long time after that, because I didn’t think she was worth watching, and didn’t realize she had spiffed up her image in the meantime. It sounds like a lot of fun, though, at this point in my life, when I want something to laugh about, as compared to those days, when I wanted some sweet and romantic stuff!

Chain se humko kabhi … was always a favorite song of mine, and I never did understand why it was cut out from the movie, until I found out the reason much, much later. What a pity!

Memsaab, Asha and OP Nayyar had a falling out. As their personal relationship deteriorated, Asha used her position to get the song deleted – even though the record had already been released, and the song had become a hit. Asha had even been awarded the Filmfare award that year for best playback singer (female) for this song – she refused to attend the function. OP Nayyar collected the award on her behalf, and promptly threw it away, thus ending one of the longest professional-personal relationships in Hindi filmdom.

Sunil Dutt and Vinod Khanna possessed the most suitable personalities for donning dacoit get-up and almost all the movies done by them in the roles of dacoits were box office successes. This movie was also a commercial success and it got re-released many times during the seventies as well as the eighties.

After O.P. Nayyar composed “Chain se humko kabhi aapne jeene na diya”, he did not allow it to be picturized. The story goes that he said that the song was too classy to be picturized on any of the women in the movie, including Rekha.

So who is correct : Blue Lotus or Anu Warrior ?! :-). Well the song definitely reflected the deteriorating relationship between O P Nayyar and Asha Bhosle (I believe the song writer wrote the lyrics with them in mind). Considering how personal it was and so raw emotionally, I would not be surprised if both of them did not want to see it on screen. The song is in any case on a different level from the other songs of the film – and even though I have not seen the film I am sure it would not have fitted the film scenario without somehow trivialising the emotions behind the song (I think only Guru Dutt could have done justice to it – the fantastic picturisation of Nayyar-Asha’s ‘Who has ki mile hamse’ in Baharein Phir Bhi Ayegi comes to mind – though much of that film was re-shot following Dutt’s suicide, I believe the footage of this song was retained from his originial work – you can make out by the very lighting, composition and acting).

One is immediately struck by the fact that all the songs in this film are by Asha and there is no song by any male singer. Have not seen this as I was too young to see ‘A’ films when it was released. I do want to see this and I have skimmred rather than read your review here (I hate to know too much about a film before i see it – especially a film that for some reason has caught my fancy). Will read it more closely after I see the movie.

Salim, I don’t know. :)) Fact is, the song was picturised. So, whether he got it cut, or Asha did, out of spite, I do not know. The reason Blue Lotus gave is the same reason that I have heard people give for the song from Kashmir ki Kali being cut – only that song was also there in the movie the first week it was released – until the censors chopped it for ‘obscenity’.

Whatever the reason, we, as viewers, lost out on some beautiful songs!

Apparently, Sharmila’s duppata flew upwards too many times during the song. (eyebrows raised) So, the song played for one week in the theatres, and then some officious creature decided it was inflaming passions or some such thing. The producer was called in, cuts were demanded, and now we have just the humming before Shammi meets Sharmila again. Aaargh!

BTW I loved your ‘izzat is izzat’ comment. Hehe. It is in line with the prime commandment of the 70s “Only thy husband shall take thine izzat, however, if thine izzat is taken before marriage, that man shall be forced to become your husband”. I wonder why it never deterred the rapists.

Sunil Dutt’s popular dacoit films were all before 1975, even his other films after 1975 are hardly mentioned in his filmography. Sanjay Dutt though had a much longer successful career , still going strong with ‘Agneepath’, that also has Rishi Kapoor playing an evil character for the 2nd time(yes!).Is he the most stereotyped actor of all time? I remember him still being a romantic hero in a so-called comedy film few years ago.even Dilip saab did different types of roles as his career progressed.
That reminds me of the film “hero'(1982), where Shammi Kapoor played one of the angriest dad ever with those ‘eyeballs of anger’,hardly remember him smiling in the film and I also forgot the film starred Amrish Puri as well.He wasn’t this angry in ‘Betaab’ released a year later.

Which was Rishi’s first role as a villain? Was it “Badalte Rishte” (1978)?

I think “Betaab” and “Hero” both released in the same year – 1983. Sunny and Jackie worked in many movies together and Sunny used to always get a higher billing. Be it “Tridev”, “Vardi” (both 1989), “Dushmani” (1996) or “Border” (1997). It was possibly because his movie released before Jackie’s.

Shammi Kapoor did star in many movies with debutants. First they were his heroines and in the later years, they were star sons. Asha Parekh, Kalpana, Saira Banu and Sharmila Tagore are some well known names. Sunny Deol, Kunal Kapoor, Rajeev Kapoor and Sunjay Dutt are the notable star sons.

@Memsaab – your review does justice to this out and out entertainer with chart-bursting songs. Like others here I saw this years after it was released. This review makes me want to see it all over again for the reasons you have documented (the hall of mirrors being one).

Sunil Dutt had a screen presence which served him well to play dacoit types. The various character artistes you have described add to the weight of the movie. Of the songs my favorite is the song picturised on Jayshree T – Bikaner ki.. for its spontaneity though all of them are great.

Rishi Kapoor was not a villain in Badaltey Rishtey (1978). In that movie, he was only pretending to be a bad person to mislead the heroine, i.e., Reena Roy. Rishi Kapoor’s first negative role came in Khoj (1989).

I’m sorry, but the reactions to that video are so pathetic to me. She shows a little leg and that’s it until the shot I put in my post, where she is obviously wearing a swimsuit! The land of the Kama Sutra has become even more childish about sex than my own land of the Puritans!

No, I mean childish really. It’s like grown Indian men have the emotional-sexual maturity of 12-year-olds—and I don’t mean Santosh and Shashi! honest!—but if you look at the comments at that video it’s just sad and creepy.

“The land of the Kama Sutra has become even more childish about sex than my own land of the Puritans!”

There was disturbance in the force called Muslims and Christians
imposing their culture on us. but obviously history don’t matter
in this case. We didn’t start the fire.
When all the alpha males were killed no wonder Indian
women dream of marrying engineers and civil servants and
drool over muslim movie stars.

When you have separation of sexes then how is indian male not
suppose to act like a 12 year old. sheesh.

From the large Indian adult male population readind this blog, I was expecting one of two reactions here to memsaab’s comment above.
– either DENY that Indian males act like 12-year olds when it comes to maturity on sex matters, or
– just DEFEND them, trying to rationalise their behaviour.

I wasn’t wrong. The first defense has come in. Still waiting for the first denial though.

First, the defense. This is about as atrociously ridiculous a comment as one can possibly conjure to explain a certain behaviour on the part of male Indian society. Never, in a MILLION years, could I have thought up something like this. so for that alone, hats off to you, mr. blah@blah.com (am assuming you are male). So the Muslims and Christians who “imposed their culture on “us”” are responsible for Indian males not able to deal with the opposite sex in a mature manner? What next? Why don’t we also blame these Muslims and Christians for all the other problems in Indian society? After all, all the “alpha” males were killed by them. If I may borrow your expression, “sheesh”.

But hey, maybe, just maybe, it is also true that a large proportion of Indian male society is a REPRESSED lot, for whom the Internet provides the perfect anonymous platform to release their suppressed urges and desires towards women. Many of them have only grown in biological age but have not matured enough to understand that there’s more to a woman than just her body parts. Maybe if they can just understand this much, there’s a chance that they’d show a little more respect towards the other sex?

Anu’s point is valid too. In addition to the lack of emotional maturity in dealing with women, there’s also the issue of hypocrisy and double standards. Again, the anonymity on the internet comes in very useful, I suppose.

Thank you Raja for saying so eloquently what I was frankly too speechless to do :) I am very glad that MOST of the Indian (and other) men who come here are mature and respectful and realize that women are so much more than, as you say, their body parts!

Memsaab- this is simply the best review of one of the ultimate tapori movies ever made. The review was as much, no more, fun than the movie itself. I sincerely hope you take requests for I have several.

Could you review about jeetendra movies from his chennai period – “Mawali”, “justice chowdhary” , etc they were all gravity defying. Please, please, please.

One surprising fact that I noticed was that none of the songs from this film made it to the Binaca Geetmala annual list. I looked at the Geetmala lists for the years 1972 to 1975 but could not find this movie listed. Surely this is an anomaly given that all the songs from this movie were well received. Perhaps others who frequent this blog and followed this show can comment.

@Memsaab – Binaca Geetmala was a popular song countdown weekly radio show much like the US Billboard Countdown list.

The songs of this movie are good, but there were superb songs in 1974 which were more popular. I as a regular Binaca geetmala follower did not think that the songs of this movie could compete with the songs of “Kora Kaghaz”, “Aapki Kasam”, “Bobby”,”Dost”, “Kahaani Kismat Ki”, “Haath Ki Safai”, “Chor Machaaye Shor”, “Prem Nagar”, “Bairaag”, “Hawas”, “Yaadon Ki Baraat”, “Prem Parbat”,”Heera Panna”,”Dharma”, “Abhmaan”,”Namak Haraam”,”Jheel Ke Us Paar”,”Jwaar Bhata”, “Manchali”,Sageena” etc.

Songs that win national award or Filmfare award did not necessarily do well at Binaca Geetmala. It is only much later, with the benefit of hindsight that people start wondering why certain songs did not figure in Binaca geetmala finals. “Pran Jaaye Par Vachan Na jaaye” songs did not become popular enough with the public, and so they naturally did not reach the finals of Binaca geetmala.

Atul – good to see your comments on this. In fact I was tempted to put this poser on your site as well :)
I agree that many movies with great songs did not make it to the Geetmala. However, my point was made after looking at the other songs on the list for that year. I felt that at least one song from this movie merited an entry in this list. This could be because Binaca Geetmala was based on actual music record sales, and though the songs from PJPVNJ were quite popular during the time, maybe not enough records got sold.

Ohhh Memsaab, you know i will. I made that pic you have on top with her eyes so wide open and looking lovelier as ever as the background on my computer. Every chance i get i stare into her ohh so hipnotic eyes (no i’m not a stalker).

Hi Memsaab. I got to watch this with subs and the plot is a little different, but no more sensible, than you made it out.
Raja Thakur is attracted to Janiya when she dances for him, but he wants to get her married (to someone else) and get her off the game. He is all about idolising women as a concept rather than marrying one himself. She is obsessed with him though, and keeps trying to seduce him, even as he offers her a choice of 3 comedy extras as potential husbands. Her attempts are understandable considering the rest of the eligible men in the cast! Pandit kept telling Raja that women are the root of all sin and discord, and clearly he could not resist succumbing to her cursed presence. And like you, I loved that RANJEET was the rescuer – Hurrah!
The subs on my DVD were quite…pithy. It’s not a “maudlin sexist melodrama” but some of the characters attitudes to sex and women are quite interesting.
I enjoyed it. I’ve been on a Sunil Dutt binge of late, and I always like seeing young Rekha. It is so sparkly! And there is not enough villainous zither playing in films these days.

I am very happy to say that someone (I still owe you Jenni!) sent me the dvd with subtitles…I did get quite a bit wrong but hey. Enjoyed it anyway :) And YOU ARE SO RIGHT what ever happened to villains playing the zither?!

Memsaab I have 3 words for you. Badle ki Aag. 3 more. SunilDutt, Jeetendra, Dharmendra. Its kind of like the bad cousin of this film, plus Shakti Kapoor as the rapey henchman. So many separated children (thanks Nirupa AGAIN) and so much…stuff…happens.

Oh, this one is glorious! Bollywood in its full glory! The super cool Sunil Dutt ,the unbelievably sexy Rekha and the completely over the top Prem Noth. The story was absolutely engaging if not complete nonsense,the sets so weird. But what made this movie so great and one I keep going back to was Rekha’s beuty and sexy legs . Another must watch!